New Kirby – DC 1950s Omnibus, free Genesis

DC’s THE JACK KIRBY OMNIBUS VOL. 1, a collection of Kirby’s non-Challengers 1950s material for the company (Green Arrow and various short stories and covers for the genre anthologies), plus a handful of pages from the 1940s, is now available. Lots of stuff which has never been reprinted before.

Also, if you didn’t pick up Dynamite’s KIRBY GENESIS #0 a few months ago, you can read it for free on-line right now. The series is based on Kirby Estate owned characters, and the “#0” issue features Kirby’s Pioneer plaque as a story element, and the back-matter has several of the original Kirby character designs, plus Kirby’s text that originally accompanied the plaque in the LA Times. Nothing too new in there if you’re a regular reader of THE JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR, but some good stuff none the less.

And, can anyone verify whether Greg Theakston’s JACK MAGIC VOL. 1 biography of Kirby came out recently? [Since verified, it came out July 6]

Hey, Patrick, that’s great news about the SPIRIT WORLD reprint. I have the first (and only) issue of the magazine in my collection, but I don’t have any of the stuff that was intended for #2 (except the odd page that’s been reprinted in places like TJKC); so I’m really looking forward to the book. Where did you read that the material from the second issue was also going to be included? The one announcement I saw indicated only that #1 was going to be reprinted.

Mark Evanier mentioned it at Marvel Masterworks.
Actually I have mixed feelings as I was hoping for an Omnibus which would include all of Spirit World, all of In the Days of the Mob, as well as True Divorce Cases, and Soul Love.
I would think the “love” books might get a commercial piggy-back by being paired with the crime and “horror” material.
Actually I just want all that stuff, but I’m worried the “love” books might not see the light of day.

That’s a really good idea, to put all that stuff into an omnibus (but MAGAZINE size, of course, not comic book size). You’re right, it would be a good way to shore up the presentation of the romance material. I guess no one at DC thought of it, though, so we’ll probably just have to wait and see if they do individual editions for each genre…unless of course someone at DC reads these comments and gets the format changed before the first book is released. I mean, the thing’s not scheduled to come out until next April, so there’s still plenty of time. HEY, DC, ARE YOU LISTENING?!

One more thing. If anyone doesn’t have Spirit World #1 it will remain irreplaceable.
The reason is it contained a fold-out poster of a Kirby collage four times the size of the magazine. Mob #1 had a fold-out poster which reproduced an old John Dillinger “Wanted Poster” but that isn’t at all the same thing as a Kirby collage.

True, but they could — and hopefully will– reproduce the poster(s) at a smaller size. I have the Spirit World poster, but my copy of Mob #1 is missing the Dillinger poster, so I’d especially like to see that one reprinted.

I’ve posted a separate entry for the SPIRIT WORLD book with what I know about it and the other “Hampshire Dist. Speak-Out Series” magazines. If you hear any news about the book before I do feel free to comment there.